Democratic presidential candidates debate passion vs. practicality

Turning up the temperature, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tangled repeatedly in Sunday night’s presidential debate over who’s tougher on gun control and Wall Street and how to steer the future of health care in America. Sanders proposes dramatic solutions that will only be possible when power is wrested from “big money” interests that refuse to do “what the American people want them to”.

When Sanders noted bluntly that he hadn’t taken campaign contributions from Wall Street banks or lucrative speaking fees from Goldman Sachs – unlike Clinton – the former secretary of state tried to turn it into an attack on Obama.

“Not one of their executives is prosecuted while kids who smoke marijuana get a jail sentence”, he said.

Over the weekend, Sanders said he would support legislation that would limit liability protections for gun manufacturers and sellers.

The pair, along with ex-Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, took the stage in Charleston, South Carolina with the temperature rising in the primary battle, as frontrunner Clinton feels the heat from challenger Sanders in a tightening nomination race. The Iowa Caucus is February 1 and the New Hampshire Primary is February 9.

Bernie Sanders has made a couple public appearances in western Mass over the past several months including one at the Massmutual Center in Springfield and one at the Fine Arts Center at UMass, Amherst.

Sanders fielded a separate question on former President Clinton when asked about his recent comments that his past sexual misconduct was “totally disgraceful and unacceptable”.

Clinton continued to hammer Sanders for his vote in support of a 2005 bill that dealt with liability for gun makers and sellers.

Questioning her commitment to policing excess on Wall Street, Sanders twice invoked Clinton’s receipt of lucrative speaking fees after leaving her post as secretary of state in early 2013. “I think is the wrong direction”, Clinton said at the debate broadcast by NBC News.

Noting that Mrs Clinton was 50 percentage points ahead of him when his presidential campaign began, he added: “Guess what: In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is (now) very, very close”. And just hours before the Democratic Debate commenced, he released his plans for his healthcare proposal.

Clinton defended the Affordable Care Act, saying that the discussion needs to shift away from replacing the health care law with a single-payer system.

“We finally have a path to universal healthcare, we’ve accomplished so much already”.

Last week was probably the greatest week of the entire campaign for Bernie Sanders, who now is within striking distance there, with Clinton (and her allies) starting to visibly feel the heat of his insurgent run. “I’ve never met a self-respecting hunter that needed an AR-15 to down a deer”, he said.

Clinton has blasted Sanders for days for failing to say how he would pay for his plan which she says would dismantle Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

Afterward, the self-described Democratic socialist, who raised $33 million last quarter, emailed supporters with this fundraising pitch: “Now is NOT the time for the same-old, same-old establishment politics and stale inside-the-beltway ideas”. “Senator Sanders called him weak, disappointing”.

“Yes, the challenges we face are many, but so are the quiet heroes working in every corner of America today doing their part to make our country a better place”, said the former secretary of state.

Clinton tackled the polling question as well when asked by moderator Lester Holt why Sanders was outdoing her among young people.